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aluminum fender vents installation

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maxwedge5281

maxwedge5281

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i just bought a set of aluminum fender vents that have never been mounted and were bought from austin healey spares. i do not intend to paint my car anytime soon. but i would like to at least "rough" them in for now. what is the preferred method for cutting the initial fender opening? cut the hole to the size of the vent outer frame? or cut the hole smaller and turn in a flange to mount the vent to? or some other method? can they be glued in? etc!. any advice is appreciated! oh, i do have aluminum fenders front and rear!
 

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1. Make sure you miss the inner fenders.

I have steel fenders and vents, but here's what I did for cutting: My vents have a flange on the outside edge. I used the inside edge as a template, and after many prayers, cut the holes to match the inner edges. I had to cut the vents to fit around the footwells and inner fender braces. That was the hardest part. Then I cleaned the metal and brazed the vent flanges to the inside of the fenders. Smoothed the openings and an touch of filler and done.

I think gluing should work with aluminum. I prefer the smooth look.
 
healey blue do you have any pics of your finished fender vents. and, did you bend the flanges around the corners or just on the most flat areas? the vents i bought do not have flanges and are already cut on the backside for clearance to brace and foot boxes.
 
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I would use a sheet metal nibbler to cut the wing once you've marked it, you can work very accurately with them and the distortion problems are very limited . Maybe have a flange water jet or lazer cut from aluminium to fit the vent you have.The flange would be welded to the vent then use car body adhesive or sikaflex polyurethane adhesive to bond the vent into place with the flange on the outside of the wing. It would look great in my opinion to supplement the adhesive bond with rivets around the flange. Dome heads are more traditional but pop rivets can work well if one takes the time to fill the heads before paint.

Its what I would do anyway....
 
Hi Maxwedge, I think you and Healeyblue might be talking about two different kinds of flanges. From your original post I got the impression that you were talking about turning the cut edge inward to a 90 degree inner flange. With the tool that Healeyblue is talking about, that tool makes an impressioned OffSet flange. As you know turning the edge to a 90 degree flange is much more difficult to keep the panel smooth. I know you can do it but just one thought, The 90 degree flange would give the panel strength, but if you did not flange it, once the vent was installed i believe the panel would have good strength. I would cut the hole smaller and see how much the panel wants to waffle.
 
type of glue to use. I have used new panel adhesive, the type used in many autobody shops, and I cannot pry it apart. I think it would work for this use.
 
Yes I was talking about an offset flange so the panel will fit flush. I do not have fender vents but have used this tool to make flush fitting panels.
 
With no flange on either the vent or fender, you're looking at tig welding the edges together. I'm sure someone is that good, but not me. Alteratively, if you look at the first photo in Steve's article on fender vents, https://www.stevesaustinhealey.com/...rks-rally-side-vent&catid=2:projects&Itemid=3, it shows the factory installation. The opening in the fender is cut ~1/4" smaller than the vent and folded inward to form a flange. The vent is slipped around the flange. It looks like the original is riveted into place, but gluing would probably be neater.
 
Depends on the fender vent construction. Ones I installed on a car years ago had flanges so they were easy to spot weld on. Biggest thing at the time was locatiing it on the fender and then cutting a perfectly good fender. I did like the result.
Marv
 
John Turney said:
With no flange on either the vent or fender, you're looking at tig welding the edges together. I'm sure someone is that good, but not me. Alteratively, if you look at the first photo in Steve's article on fender vents, https://www.stevesaustinhealey.com/...rks-rally-side-vent&catid=2:projects&Itemid=3, it shows the factory installation. The opening in the fender is cut ~1/4" smaller than the vent and folded inward to form a flange. The vent is slipped around the flange. It looks like the original is riveted into place, but gluing would probably be neater.
Click to expand...

John,

Thanks for posting this. I was looking for Steve's website the other day and it was no longer being hosted at its old site. Glad to see that info is still out there. Lots of good stuff.
 
Setting the WayBack Machine to 1985, I installed a pair of "Layne's Louvres"; these were a little smaller than the actual works type, but are still pretty effective. They're contructed with an extruded aluminum frame, providing a "finished flange" on the outside of the fender (using this old pic for the obvious contrast, exploiting the use of gray primer where the paint cracked while rolling a flange inward).

handbraketurn.jpg


Layne provided a template, but in essence, a 1" flange was turned inward on the three (3) straight sections of the louvre, and the three (3) corners were cut to just allow the vent to fit__the finished flange covering the cut.

The aluminum frames were thick enough to put a 1/4-20 tapped hole in the center of each straight run, with a bolt through the fender's flange and into the frames (3 per vent). Being removable, taking out the LH vent gives great access to the brake & clutch master cylinders, which is most welcome with a brace of sidedraft Webers restricting access from the top.

Showing a little bit closer detail of the exposed flange:

IMG_7580.jpg


Try as I might, I don't have a picture of the flange from inside the fender readily available... :(
 
Nice job, Randy. If I ever want to build a rally car and use those vents currently in storage, I hope that I can find your pictures.
 
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